


Agent Danvers

by 5_Minute_Fics



Series: Pieces of Life [6]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-23 10:57:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6114391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5_Minute_Fics/pseuds/5_Minute_Fics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hank makes Alex deal with her feelings after the events of 1x13.  This comes immediately after "A Textbook Kill" and wraps up the mini-series on Alex / Astra.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Agent Danvers

"Sit!" 

Alex Danvers stood in her own living room, massaging her arm where Hank Henshaw had just released his grip. He had pulled her out of the SUV, across the parking garage, through the apartment building, and into her home. Once the door had closed behind them, Hank turned and faced Alex. 

"I said sit down, Agent Danvers!" 

Alex quickly took a seat in the closest chair. She leaned forward, folded her hands together, and looked down at the floor. How did it come to this? Less than an hour ago she had been asleep in the front seat of her DEO-assigned vehicle, on the outskirts of National City. How did Hank find her? How did he even know where to look? 

Hank Henshaw was her commanding officer, her friend, and her surrogate father. She loved him for all of those things, but she wasn't happy to see him today. After yelling at her to wake her up, he drove her home in total silence. And now he was here in her living room, standing in front of her, with his arms folded across his chest.

This was going to be a bad morning. 

"Sir, I can only imagine what you're thinking -" 

"This is about what YOU are thinking, Agent Danvers." 

Alex was familiar with that tone of voice. It was the one he saved for the most unacceptable of circumstances. Despite her best efforts, Alex felt like a little girl who was in very big trouble. 

"You're wondering if this is the first time I've ever caught drinking alone. The answer is no, it is not. But it is the first time that you've missed a check-in and I've had to go looking for you." He started to pace the living room. 

"I overslept." 

"Overslept?" Hank didn't know it was possible for Alex to make him any angrier, and yet here she had done it, with just two words. 

"Don't insult my intelligence, Agent Danvers. You were passed out drunk." 

"No sir, I was NOT drunk-" 

"We are at war!" He said, a little louder than he liked outside the confines of the DEO. "You are second in command at the DEO, and we just killed the leader of our enemy. What if they retaliated last night?" 

Hank continued detailing for Alex all of the ways she had put them in danger with her reckless behavior, and it didn't take Alex long to figure out that this was going to go on for a while. 

Yes, yes, blah blah blah, Alex had let him down. She was used to letting people down. She knows the routine. At some point, Hank's strongly worded lecture turned into background chatter and gave way to Alex's own thoughts. 

Admittedly, it was a fuck-up of the highest order to miss check-in ... _can't believe I did that_ ... but he didn't need to overreact. He was talking to her like she was a criminal. Wasn't he the one who was always talking about the promise he made to her father, to watch out for her? And what she did on her own time was none of his damn bus- 

Alex noticed that Hank had stopped talking, and she wasn't sure exactly how long ago that had been. That wasn't good. She glanced up at him. 

"It's _because_ of my promise to your father that we are here, Alex." 

She chuckled. She had briefly forgotten about his telepathy, and was sure that he had picked up everything that she had been thinking. 

Hank sighed. He didn't like the attitude, but she got the message. Next subject. 

"There's something else we need to discuss Alex." 

"Great." 

Hank ignored the sarcasm. "I know you spoke privately with Astra." 

Alex sucked in a deep, shaky breath, and felt her skin start to tingle. If he knew she spoke with Astra, then he knew she never reported it. And that was not good. 

"Sir, let me explain -" 

"SIT DOWN!" Henshaw wasn't finished with Alex yet, and she was going to sit and listen until he was. Alex sank back into the chair. 

Hank's telepathic abilities as a Martian were handy, but there was more to his understanding of Alexandra Danvers than just his alien power. He had watched her for years. He could read her face, her body language, the tone of her voice. He knew that Alex had hoped to turn Astra into an ally. He knew that killing her sister's aunt was hard on her. But she was never going to get through it by carrying it all on her own shoulders. He needed it out in the open. 

"Alex, why did you kill Astra?" 

"Sir?" Alex may have been struggling with the same question, but there was an obvious answer for someone like Hank. She didn't expect him to make her explain. 

"Why didn't you order Astra to stand down? See if you could take her in?" 

"She was an immediate threat." It was the truth, which made it an easy lie. 

"Then what's the problem?" Alex's body language told Hank that she didn't know how to answer. Hank's body language told Alex that she had to find a way. 

She finally started to talk. "I wanted to do better. I wanted to let Kara have something from her fantasy. But I ... didn't." 

Hank sat down on the couch across the room from Alex, and said nothing. The silence seemed to last forever to Alex, though Hank instinctively knew that it was only 1.2 minutes. Martians had a keen sense of time, and as J'onn J'onzz learned to adapt to Earth time, he had also developed the perspective and self-discipline that an alien needs when he is alone on a planet full of humans. Hank knew how to wait. The silence between Hank and Alex would break when Alex broke it, and not a moment before. 

His patience paid off. Alex told Hank everything that she saw in Kara's dream world, and Hank gently and skillfully read between the spoken lines. She spoke slowly at first, pushing through barriers of old habits and inner voices that demanded she always show strength. Once she found her way through those barriers, her words took on a life of their own. 

Alex was hurt, angry, disappointed, and scared, and she had been struggling with these feelings for years. Bruises and cuts from fighting the boys who called Kara retarded, followed by school detention and weeks without privileges at home. Fleeting hopes that Kara would just go away led to hours and days of self-hatred for having such cruel thoughts. Late nights of holding Kara while she cried herself to sleep, and early mornings when Kara cried herself awake. Alex's parents, her bedroom, her toys ... half of everything was given to Kara. And the half that remained, Alex had to share. 

And then they grew up, and Alex started to lie. Where she worked, what she was doing, who she was with. All of it lies. Alex couldn't be honest with her sister, until her sister became Supergirl. 

Hank had lost track of what Alex had said out loud and what he had taken from her mind without her permission. She was still talking, and that was a good sign. Alex was beginning to understand that she had a lot to work through. That was all he wanted from her today. 

"She would have killed you, and then she would have taken Kara from me too." Alex said, no longer hiding her anger. "I couldn't allow it. They've killed dozens of soldiers; I don't know how many civilians. They've turned Maxwell Lord into our enemy, and they brought General Lane into our house." 

She stopped talking abruptly. She couldn't bring herself to say any more. 

"It's okay for you to hate them, Alex." 

Alex almost started to cry, but she quickly regained her composure. "I do." 

The two of them sat in silence, with Alex thinking of all of the things she had just told Hank, and Hank thinking about his promise to Jeremiah. 

_I don't know how to help her. What do I do?_ Just one more time when J'onn wished his telepathy wasn't restricted to the living. 

"Alex, I know you're in pain. I'm here for you. But right now there are two things that you need to know." Alex looked up at him and he continued. "You are a DEO agent with thousands of hours of training. You're second in command of an elite organization, which makes you elite among the elite. You're an expert in a very specialized field of science. And we are at war. You serve this country, and you have no right to question whether you should kill an enemy who is about to kill one of your fellow agents."

"Yes sir," Alex said softly. "You're right, of course."

Hank continued. "Now I want you to listen to me very carefully Alex. Families aren't perfect, and your family was given a very imperfect situation to deal with. Your parents did the best they could, and so did you. You can forgive them, Alex." He leaned toward Alex and put his hand on her shoulder. "You can forgive yourself too. You never failed them." 

Alex nodded. "Thank you sir." 

Hank stood up to leave, and then pulled something out of his jacket. It was the empty whiskey bottle that he had found when he picked up Alex. He handed it to Alex. "If that becomes a problem," he said, "I will lock you in a cell until the problem is gone. Understood?" 

"Yes sir." She said softly, looking away. 

"I'll see you tomorrow Agent Danvers." 

"I'll see you in the morning sir." 

Hank nodded, turned, and walked out the door.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfic I've done that benefits from the work of beta-readers. Many thanks to whywestillneedfeminism and boxohearts (tumblr). I hope you enjoy the fic. I'm @comicgirlgeek on tumblr if you'd like to connect.


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